data quality

Jake Moskowitz, head of the Emodo Institute, debunks some myths about location data. Here’s the first shocking one: Location data can’t find you 60 million devices that visited a Hyundai dealership within the last month or two… or three, because that’s impossible. Throughout all of 2017, across the entire US, there were only about 17 million cars sold in total. That includes Hyundai, Honda, Ford—indeed, all brands. In data stores, users run across super-sized segments all the time. It’s not uncommon for vendors to claim that their single-brand auto dealership visitor segments include tens of millions of consumers. Location data is powerful, but it can’t make up shoppers.

“Location data offers the ability to turn universal ads into local ads. Same as local TV. The issue is how location targeting is being executed,” says location-based ad veteran Warren Zenna. “People don’t look at ads on their phones when they are out doing things like shopping and driving around. They look at them, sometimes, when they are inactive. Mobile ad creative needs to be better — more engaging and more contextual — and presented when someone is in a contextually relevant mindset.”

You need proven industry benchmarks if you want to set realistic goals and expectations for location data-driven marketing. Going forward, these norms can help you form and answer key questions about location data-based tactics, so you can make more informed data decisions.

Why all the recent talk of going data-only when data shows that customers are amenable to providing location data if it leads to relevant advertising? Let’s take a closer look at what a long-term commitment to our media partners really requires when it comes to location, minus all the triopoly panic.

Digital advertising is an incredibly sophisticated industry, yet when it comes to selling in the data store, vendors lack incentive and opportunity to focus on quality. Instead, they’re restricted to sales tactics—none of which are good for buyers, brands, or the industry.

Harry Dewhirst may be the real-life version of Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man In the World.” President of location intelligence company Blis, he holds no permanent residence, dynamically bouncing among Airbnbs and hotels, including the undisclosed location in Singapore where we reached him for the latest episode of Heard on the Street.

In order to be effective, marketers need to know how various segment options stack up and measure up in terms of accuracy. Just like with increasing viewability, the first step toward a fix in data quality is realizing and acknowledging the problem.

TODAY IN LOCAL & DIGITAL MARKETING AND MEDIA… How Serious is the New Facebook Breach?… S4M Releases Calculator to Measure ROI Generated by Drive-to-Store Campaigns… Now That We’ve Improved Media Transparency, Let’s Do the Same With Data…

From brands to vendors to publishers, DMEXCO is a good bellwether to consider when trying to understand where things are headed. Brands taking control, data quality, and publishers getting smarter about data are key topics I kept hearing about—and for good reason.

This month’s Brand Battle, in conjunction with Brandify, compares the local digital marketing footprint of two popular apparel chains: Forever 21 and H&M. The Swedish clothing giant was the runaway victor in this contest, besting its rival in five of the six categories evaluated and tying Forever 21 in the sixth category.

Lowe’s and Home Depot duked it out in this month, with Home Depot roundly trouncing its competitor on key areas of local presence. Lowe’s showed in local advertising, but faces challenges elsewhere. Digital marketing company Where2GetIt crunched numbers to compare how the two are branding locally and how that is affecting local consumers…